Classifying Industries with DistilBERT: A Step-by-Step Guide

Jul 20, 2020 | Educational

In the world of data and analytics, classifying business descriptions into specific industry categories can be a game-changer. Whether you’re a data scientist, a business analyst, or just someone curious about how this works, the DistilBERT model can help you accurately categorize businesses into 62 distinct industry tags. This will be particularly useful for anyone dealing with companies in India, thanks to its specialized training on 7000 samples of business descriptions. In this guide, we will walk you through how to implement this model using Python and the Hugging Face Transformers library.

Getting Started with DistilBERT

Before we dive deep into using the DistilBERT model, let’s look at a simplified analogy to grasp its working mechanism better. Imagine you are a librarian, and you needs to categorize a large collection of books, each with a unique story. You don’t need to read each book; instead, you have a smart assistant (DistilBERT) who has already read many similar books and can identify where each book belongs based on its content. This reduces the time and effort needed to categorize books accurately, just like DistilBERT does for business descriptions.

How to Use DistilBERT for Industry Classification

Let’s break down the steps to implement the DistilBERT model. First, ensure you have the required libraries installed. You will need transformers and torch to get started. You can install them using pip:

pip install transformers torch

Now, follow these steps:

  • Import the necessary modules from the Transformers library.
  • Load the pre-trained DistilBERT tokenizer and model.
  • Utilize the model to classify business descriptions.

Here’s a sample code snippet to guide you:

from transformers import AutoTokenizer, AutoModelForSequenceClassification, pipeline

# Load the tokenizer and model
tokenizer = AutoTokenizer.from_pretrained("sampathkethineedi/industry-classification")
model = AutoModelForSequenceClassification.from_pretrained("sampathkethineedi/industry-classification")

# Create a pipeline for sentiment-analysis
industry_tags = pipeline("sentiment-analysis", model=model, tokenizer=tokenizer)

# Classify a business description
result = industry_tags("Stellar Capital Services Limited is an India-based non-banking financial company ... loan against property, management consultancy, personal loans and unsecured loans.")
print(result)

Understanding the Output

When you run the above code, you will receive an output similar to this:

[{'label': 'Consumer Finance', 'score': 0.9841355681419373}]

This output indicates the model’s classification of the input text as “Consumer Finance” with a confidence score of approximately 98.4%. The score reflects how confident the model is about its classification, with higher scores indicating greater certainty.

Troubleshooting Tips

If you encounter any issues while implementing the DistilBERT model, consider the following troubleshooting ideas:

  • Ensure that you have installed the correct versions of the transformers and torch libraries.
  • Double-check the model name you are using; it should correspond exactly to the one listed in the Hugging Face repository.
  • Make sure your input format is correct and adheres to the expected structure of business descriptions.
  • If you receive unexpected outputs, consider training the model further with more diverse data.

For more insights, updates, or to collaborate on AI development projects, stay connected with fxis.ai.

Limitations

It’s essential to note that the DistilBERT model is trained on data solely from Indian companies. This means its applicability may be limited if you’re looking to classify businesses outside of India.

Conclusion

With its ease of use and high accuracy, the DistilBERT model for industry classification can serve as a powerful tool for anyone looking to analyze and classify business descriptions effectively. Not only does it save time, but it also allows you to derive meaningful insights from data.

At fxis.ai, we believe that such advancements are crucial for the future of AI, as they enable more comprehensive and effective solutions. Our team is continually exploring new methodologies to push the envelope in artificial intelligence, ensuring that our clients benefit from the latest technological innovations.

Stay Informed with the Newest F(x) Insights and Blogs

Tech News and Blog Highlights, Straight to Your Inbox